A Slippery Customer
by Tsume Yuki
Summary: If there was one thing Tom Riddle knew about his girl-friend Harriet Potter, it was that he didn't really know her at all. She was just that girl that turned up at the shop that day, the one that came with all the answers. And he'd known right then that he had to have her, that he had to have her secrets. He didn't know her, but he was going to. FemHarry Time-travel
1. 0-1

**A Slippery Customer**

**x**

If there was one thing Tom Riddle knew about his girl-friend Harriet Potter, it was that he didn't really know her at all. She was just that girl that turned up at the shop that day, the one that came with all the answers. And he'd known right then that he had to have her, that he had to have her secrets.

He didn't know her, but he was going to.

**0-1**

If there was one thing Tom Riddle knew about his girl-friend, it was that he didn't really know her at all.

Oh sure, he knew her name -Harriet Lily Potter- and he knew she was nineteen years old. A half year older than he himself was. He knew she was an up and coming Quidditch star, and he was also one of the few to know that she had personally robbed Gellert Grindelwald himself, leaving with the man's wand as the German wizard stumbled around to get his army back up and running.

She was the very reason that when Dumbledore showed up to the set date and time for their duel, the one Grindelwald had personally chosen; well, she was the reason the Dark Lord had been absent. He was apparently still trying to track the raven haired girl down.

But that was the extent of his knowledge.

Oh sure, he knew the little things, how she loved chocolate and treacle tart, how she both liked and disliked toying with the ring on his finger when they held hands, he even knew that once when she'd been in hospital twin friends had sent her a toilet seat.

But he didn't know much about her, he didn't know the important things.

He didn't know why she didn't leave her back exposed in a crowd, instead preferring to travel near the wall to close up blind spots in her vision.

He didn't know why she had a perfect, cursed scar upon the back of her hand, '_I will not tell lies_', cursed because skin didn't cut that smooth normally.

He didn't know any of the stories behind any of her scars, he didn't know why she flinched at the near mention of an unforgivable and seemed to instantly go on the defensive.

He didn't know how she knew so much, or why her eyes looked that battle-harded whenever Grindelwald's followers began a raid whenever she was near.

Most of all, he didn't know why the insecurity and the panic crossed her face whenever she stared at him, whenever she thought he wasn't looking.

But he was going to find out.

* * *

**The chapters will be longer, just consider this the teaser I guess; I'm really excited to write this, but in no way am I giving up on 'Phantasy' and my other stories. On that topic, I have half a chapter wrote up for that, I just need to finish it. **

**Once again, not giving up, just starting something new, and hopefully, good.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	2. 1-1

**A Slippery Customer**

**x**

**1-1**

It was a Tuesday afternoon, Tom's second day working in Borgin and Burkes'. Mr Borgin was a rather odd fellow, snappy and constantly on Tom's heels. It was quite clear he disliked him for his so called 'muggle-born' status, but Tom let it fly right over his head for the time being. He'd have the man under thumb eventually, but for now, he would go on to play his part well, charm the customers and clientèle, all the while looking for those elusive items that were in the exclusive group of being worthy enough to house a piece of his sole.

Slowly, he pushed a lock of wavy hair back from his eyes, having taken a moment to inspect his appearance before the doors opened for the afternoon. He'd just finished his lunch, and with Borgin out on business tracking down some rare item dubbed 'the hand of glory', that'd left Tom in charge of the shop.

It was an exceedingly good thing that he was a very competent young man, because if it'd been left to the likes of those Goyle or Crabbe boys, there wouldn't be much of a shop left within the hour.

As the door magically unlocked, Tom took his placed upon the worn comfortable stool behind the counter, flicking open a rather dark book he'd rummaged out from the back of the store. That was another good point about the work here, he was free to look through all the books he wished as long as he didn't damage them, so it was a prime opportunity to expand his ever growing knowledge on the dark arts.

.

The bell above the door chimed not twenty minutes later and Tom lifted his head, not in the least surprised to see Malfoy and his father walk in. The young man, who'd been two years ahead of Tom but crumbled to his power by Tom's fifth year looked exceedingly nervous, no doubt panicked that his father would be rude and provoke a reaction from Tom. But he was more than happy to ignore it, after all, he'd be able to get back at the boy at a later date.

It was better to make the idiot sweat it out.

"Boy, I have a package for collection."

Tom took in the features of Lord Malfoy -tall and regal, long hair pulled back at the nape of the neck, twisted expression upon his face- and nodded slowly.

"Of course Lord Malfoy, one moment please."

Allowing the book he'd been reading beneath the counter to slide shut, Tom get to his feet, making his way to the back-room and the shelves that were housed there. Everything that was for collection was now ordered by date of collection, and then the importance of it's recipient. It had been Tom's job to order everything the previous day, and he'd proven very efficient at it.

Picking up the nondescript package, wrapped in simple brown paper and giving no clue as to the contents, Tom returned to the front desk and handed it over with little to no fuss, accepting the payment and ignoring the muttered 'mudblood' that came from the man. Malfoy and his now marked for dead father made their way from the store and the bell gave another jingle as it was forced into movement again.

"Delightful people, right?"

.

Tom's hand had been on his wand and his body in a defensive crouch behind the counter before he'd even comprehended the words. Once they'd registered though, he slowly stood up, tucking his wand back into his pocket and assessing the person who'd silently slipped beneath his guard to be stood at the counter, just beyond the corner of his vision from where he'd been looking at the door.

Her hair was raven black, falling in long, messy strands down her back and framing her face. She was pretty enough, he supposed, a small dent in her nose suggesting she'd worn glasses until recently. It was a good thing she'd gotten rid of them, her best feature was clearly her eyes. They were green and intensely bright, the colour of the killing curse.  
A small jolt ran down Tom's spine at the colour but he ignored it easily, pushing the feeling away and offering the girl his best smile. She had two books tucked beneath her arms, a weary smile upon her face as she grinned at him.

"I'm not sure as to what you mean," Tom finally answered in a calculated drawl, neither giving away the fact that he agreed with her nor voicing the agreement aloud.

Green Eyes smiled back at him, having clearly read between the lines as she placed the two books upon the counter, giving an exasperated sigh as strands of wispy black hair fell in front of her eyes, quickly releasing a sharp shot of air from her mouth in order to blow them away. Tom returned the smile hesitantly, not quite sure how to deal with the girl before him as he smoothly totalled up her purchase. The books weren't quite dark, instead covering the unofficially banned topic of elemental and weather manipulations, the kind of books that wouldn't be found out in Diagon or anywhere else actually.

"This is some heavy reading," he finally mused in an attempt to prise a bit more information from the girl, watching as she twirled her wand absent-mindedly between her fingers. It was familiar, and took him a few moments to place for a second. But he knew he'd seen it before, back in Olivanders. It'd been the last one he'd tried before he found the Yew spell-caster currently in his pocket, the brother wand that'd almost worked so well for him. If the Yew wand didn't exist, that one would have been his.

And here a girl stood before him, holding it in her delicate grasp.

"Yeah, my friend Hermione would be so proud of me. Too bad she didn't come with me to witness it." That was a lead, a bookish friend called Hermione, whom clearly wasn't from around here; at least he could give his followers something to do now.

"If you've never read Pruntings' '_Consideration of the Elements_', I'd suggest you look into that too. It might give you the background knowledge you need for this," tapping a long finger against the hard-back book in question, Tom flicked his eyes back up to the girl's to see Green Eyes was still assessing him curiously, clearly quite unable to make anything out of him. He presented his front well, there was no cracks in his character. But she was still looking for them.

"Thanks, I will. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"Have a good day," Tom murmured as she left, the bell clinking to signal her exit, not unlike when it'd remained silent upon her entry. Two leads now that he thought about it, but how to enquire with Olivander on the owner of his brother wand?

Drumming his fingers against the work-top surface, Tom frowned.

Tricky.

* * *

**These chapters really are going to be all over the place in length, but I promise none will be shorter than 1000 words. So, here's the start, thank you all so much for your super kind reviews, I thought I'd put this up with the next chapter of Phantasy because, hey, it's done. No point in waiting around. **

**How I came up with this idea? I just really wanted to write some Tom and Harry fluff, and tried thinking how I could do a one-shot. I had to pick the time-period, then my imagination spiralled out of control and thus, this was birthed. So I hope you like it. This is more of a 'I'm out of idea's for Phantasy for the moment, I'll type at this till my brain starts working again'.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	3. 1-2

**A Slippery Customer**

**x**

**1-2**

Green Eyes didn't come crashing back into his life for a month. In all honesty, Tom was beginning to wonder if he'd actually she her again. Olivander had been a dead end, all about customer confidentiality.

And nothing had turned up on a 'bookish Hermione'. He'd cursed his followers in hopes it would make them work faster, but they always came back with the same result. No witch called Hermione exists, especially none with a friend that matched the description Tom had given of Green Eyes. He was curious, unfortunately so.

If it'd been anyone else, he'd have ignored her, she'd have only been a fleeting thought on the fact that she was looking into such obscure branches of magic. But it was the owner of his brother wand, and if that wasn't important enough to take note of, he wasn't sure what was.

Already he'd looked through the year-books of Hogwarts for the past two years, but he hadn't found a raven haired girl that looked somewhat similar, neither with glasses or without. It was almost as if she'd popped up out of nowhere. He'd told all his followers to keep an eye out, but so far, no one had seen head or tail of the girl, so Tom was ready to give it up for a back-burner project, just a little tidbit of information that he'd have to make sure didn't grow into too big of a problem. Something to nip in the bud if it did decide to grow.

So of course, it was while he was entertaining these ideas of giving up that he ran smack into Green Eyes herself whilst going out into the Alley for the first time on his lunch break.

.

He'd been making his way down Diagon Alley, heading towards a little store that sold all sorts of lunchables that could be snapped up cheap for the hungry worker. He had a book out in front of him, effortlessly weaving through the people without removing his eyes from the pages. So he was somewhat surprised to find someone barrel into his left side when he attempted to turn in the same direction, sending them both of them flying. His book hit the floor and Tom looked up, one hand already on his wand as his eyes scanned the crowd for the threat.

Bright green eyes stared back at him in shock before they began to swim with amusement, strands of raven hair falling in front of the little emeralds. Tom stared back for a second, unable to believe that the girl had so suddenly appeared, so suddenly blasted back into his life when he'd been just about ready to forget about her. He snapped to attention, getting to his feet and helping the girl up, already aware of the fact that it was better to help her up rather than reach for his book first. Not to make the wrong impression.

He was glad he did, because the girl offered a teasing display of wandless magic that saw her effortlessly summon the book to her hands. It stopped there, because she pulled out her wand and tapped the book, cleaning it from the slight dirt it'd gained due to its fall.

"Sorry about that, I get a bit blind-sided to everything other than the location of my food when I'm hungry." A hand went to her hair, ruffling it nervously with a sheepish grin spreading across her features. She seemed at ease with his presence, and Tom wasn't too sure if he was happy about that.

"You're heading out for lunch?"  
The girl paused, turning to look at him before another nervous smile lit up her face.

"Erm, yeah?"

"I too am on my lunch break, would you care if I were to join you?"  
Green Eyes seemed a bit struck by his forwardness but she slowly nodded, pocketing her wand and pushing the book into his chest so he'd accept it. Tom thought to offer his arm in the typical escorting customs that all pure-bloods used, but Green Eyes was already off down the street, barely waiting for him to catch up to her.

"I never introduced myself, my name is Tom Riddle."  
Green Eyes blinked, looking at him as he walked beside her to the same shop he'd previously been heading to before she simpered again.

"Harriet Potter, but everyone just call me Harry." Harriet 'call me Harry' Potter gestured to the entrance way for him to go in first and Tom did so, completely thrown out of the loop by this girl. Before he might have been able to ignore her, but now, with her odd behaviour and ignorance of social customs, he wasn't going to be able to stop until he'd figured her out.

Not too surprising, but slightly vexing.

.

The heat of the café was warm against his skin, which had been cooling in the mid October air outside. He managed to get them a small booth table against the wall whilst Harriet Potter went rummaging through the menu, humming slightly to herself beneath her breath. The girl was exceedingly strange and clearly didn't mind standing on her own two feet, she seemed far to independent compared to any other woman he'd ever met. He was still trying to figure out just what was wrong, because there had been something out of place when they'd crashed into each other.

But the information was eluding him right now.

"I'm having a chicken club sandwich, you?"

Tom snapped back to attention, lifting a brow at the girl as he did so. Potter really didn't care for niceties, that much was obvious. She'd already pulled the Daily Prophet from her pocket and spread it out on the table. Tom was going to answer her question, when the front page caught his eye.

'_Black-Out?'_  
The article went on to describe a mysterious wizard in black that'd been slipping behind Grindelwald's lines and taking down some of the man's plans from inside. Apparently, the figure had not only made an enemy of the Dark Lord, but he'd also been the reason Grindelwald didn't show up for his pre-planned duel with Dumbledore. Or so the rumour went.

"Interesting right?" Potter asked after they were done ordering, a little smile on her face before she shrugged. "I don't usually have much time to follow the news like this because I'm training, but I think it's great someone's actively trying to stop that mass-murderer."

"You don't agree with the war then?" Tom asked carefully, watching as the green eyed girl brushed her hair back from her face before nodding seriously.

"I don't like war. There's been too much of it already. I mean sure, there's a lot of magic that has no right to be banned, but that's not the way of going about and sorting it out."

Tom nodded, trying to think of a way to avoid the dangerous topic of the Dark Lord and his war, least his own views slip out. True he was very confident in his acting skills, but he didn't need to run the risk of letting something slip if he didn't need to. So he latched on to the other thing he could pick out of that conversation.

"Training?"

Now the girl smiled, happily accepting the plate of food when it arrived.

"Yep, I'm the new seeker for the Magpies."

He hummed, because Lord Voldemort did not follow that foolish sport, but he knew for a female to get on any team other than the Harpies was impressive. So her reflexes had to be good, and she was capable of wandless magic.

Interesting.

* * *

It was during an informal meeting with the newly renamed Death Eaters that it finally clicked on just what had been wrong during his encounter with Harriet Potter. Lestrange was stood giving his formal address on the current politics before attention was turned to the Eastern front.

"And we've heard some disturbing rumours about this so called wizard in black. Orion said he overheard his father talking about, well, that this wizard stole Grindelwald's wand."

"What?" Tom asked, straightening up in his chair where he'd been bent over the official written reports he'd started asking for. Lestrange looked a bit wide eyed at his sudden interest and he began to hurry through the rest of his words as a result.

"Apparently, it's not his original wand and worked better than that, went to a lot of effort to get that particular wand actually. That massacred village? It's rumoured he did that when he found his wand missing."

But Tom's head was elsewhere, dancing along the lines of another wand he'd seen. Or rather, one he hadn't seen today. When Potter had pulled out her wand to clean off his book, it hadn't been the phoenix feather wand she'd had the first time. Was there a connection?  
Surely not, she was a Quidditch player, there was no way-

"Walburga Black has tickets to the Magpies' new season, correct?"

Looking a bit thrown off by the sudden change in topic, Lestrange nodded slowly, running a stressed hand through his curly hair.

"Find out all you can on their new seeker and inform Miss Black that I will be her companion on this outing."

* * *

**Okay, next chapter here we go. I've had almost all of this finished since I last updated, it was only the last paragraph I was trying to sort out. So, here you are.**

**This fic is in no way related to any of my others by the way, it's a stand alone that I wanted to write because fluff and stuff in Phantasy is gonna be a long way off. Hence, this. **

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	4. 1-3

**A Slippery Customer**

**x**

**1-3**

He'd never been overly fond of Quidditch. The crowd was too noise, too rambunctious and too wild for his tastes. And though he admitted that the players had to have a handful of skill and he respected the fact they were so focused upon their training, he still thought there was so much more to be done with life rather than sit on a broom chasing after a ball.

But, they provided entertainment for the masses, and really, if that distracted the vast majority of the on-going power-struggle, who was he to complain? Big events like this could be used to his advantage, so he wasn't going to do much to change it once he finally took over Britain. It'd keep the wool over the sheep's eyes, which was exactly what he was aiming for.

Luckily enough, he was attending this game with a Black, and most importantly, a Black engaged to marry the Heir to the house of Black. Which meant the best seats in the spectators box and thus, far away from the rest of the spectators. There were some other important faces around and Tom was pleased to see Lestrange had taken his orders seriously enough to worm his way into the box too, obviously to collect information on the new seeker. All he'd had to do was explain the girl owned his brother wand and Lestrange had become fully focused on his task, asking around and collecting information as best he could.

Seeing as the Magpies had played nothing other than two friendly matches since Potter had joined up, there hadn't been much to report back, other than the fact the girl was apparently exceptional on a broom. At least he'd be able to tell for himself today during this match.

Walburga had been exceptionally surprised when she'd been informed Tom wished to watch the match with her, and had been more than happy to tell her brother that England's next dark-lord would be taking his seat at the Quidditch game.

Apparently Alphard had been a rather upset, not that Tom cared either way. He needed information and that was slightly more important than some poor boy's obsession with this stupid sport.

"And now for the Magpies; Chasers Smith, Carding and Blackburn, Beaters Hastings and Rollinson, with Keeper Lomen all returning for their next season. And fresh onto the team we have the Magpies newest seeker, Miss Harriet Potter."

Each player had soared up into the sky at the sound of their names and Tom watched as Potter came out last. She didn't seem to be rocketing out at the same speed as her team-mates, but Tom hadn't been a Slytherin for nothing. He could recognise a ploy when he saw one. She was too comfortable on her broom, he could tell from the fact her hands weren't gripping the broom like it was the only thing between her and a quick death. She was trying to get them to underestimate her, and it was working, because the Falcons' were sneering at the raven haired girl.  
Hell, even Walburga beside him was frowning, clearly not happy about the girl that was currently showing the promise of messing up her favourite team.

The balls were brought out and Tom couldn't help but sit forwards slightly at the suddenly focused look on Potter's face. The second the whistle was blown Potter shot downwards, spiralling as she went and a good number of the fans let out a shocked cry of disbelief.

"Unbelievable, could Potter have already seen the snitch?!" Even the announcer didn't seemed to believe it and Tom watched as the Falcons' seeker shot after her, only a few feet behind as Potter kept rocketing towards the ground. It was beyond the level of the Hogwarts games he'd forced himself to attend whilst keeping up his act as perfect student, Potter was exceptional on a broom, that much was obvious. They grew closer and closer to the ground and even Tom had a hard enough time believing that Potter would be able to level out her dive.

But she did, perhaps three feet above the ground.

The Falcons' seeker was not so lucky, ploughing straight into the ground at a high-speed that had the Black beside him wincing, regardless of the fact the man wasn't on her favourite team.

It took the announcer a few seconds to realize that it was a feint, and only because Potter was lazily making her way back into the air.

"Incredible, Potter opens up with a Wronski Feint that has clearly put the Falcons' seeker out of commission for a while. And what a risky move it was! This girl is clearly not to be underestimated."

Yes, Tom was getting that feeling now.

The girl was obviously fearless, coming so close to knocking herself out just to take out the competition. The Falcons and their fans were clearly outraged if their ridiculous cries of anger were anything to go by, while one of the Magpie chasers had the audacity to high-five Potter as she went by.

.

Tom spent the rest of the game focusing on Potter.

The Falcons seeker was back in the air after twenty minutes and seemed exceedingly disgruntled, especially when the big screen showed Potter offering a not so apologetic shrug in his direction. The snitch had yet to be sighted though, so Tom was quickly growing bored of just watching Potter lazily trail around the stadium with the Falcons seeker following after her at a respectable distance.

It was when the Magpies were thirty up on the Flacons that it happened.

A bludger came rocketing from a Falcons beater towards Potter, who twirled exceptionally out of the way before she took off in another dive. The opposing seeker was understandably weary of going after her, but he must have seen something to make him think otherwise because after two seconds of hesitation, he too was diving towards the ground.

It only took Tom a moment to recognise the golden blur in front of Potter, just as the girl's hand closed around it as she almost dodged another bludger which just grazed her outstretched hand. But it didn't matter, she'd caught the snitch, and as it was announced, the crowd and -to Tom's disgust- Black went wild.

Potter was nursing her most probably broken arm to her chest, the other curled around her broom as she steered it to land whilst her team-mates cheered her on. Even the Falcons looked grudgingly impressed.

So the girl was good at Quidditch, Tom would give her that.

But it still didn't answer any questions he had about her wands or why his followers could barely find anything on her. Malfoy had already been through the pure-blood registry in the Minstery, and no Potter had turned up. However, when Avery had managed to corner Charlus Potter and ask after the girl, the man had been more than happy to confirm they were related, but had gone no deeper than that.

So, the girl was related to the Potters, thus she had to be a half-blood. That still didn't explain why he could find her on the birth registry, why there was only a few documents of her taking both her OWLS and NEWTS barely days apart several months ago. And the fact she'd scored higher than him in defence was certainly something to take note of.

He needed to talk to her again, quite obviously. He needed to plan a little run in, but how to go about it?

Frowning and drumming his fingers against his leg, Tom tried to figure out how to run into the girl when he only really knew where she'd be by her Quidditch matches. Clearly this was going to be a little harder than he'd first thought.

And then, it hit him.

The perfect way to keep in contact with the Potter girl. Friendship didn't mean he'd be able to keep track of her as much as he liked, and he wouldn't risk exposing the Death Eaters to her by asking if she wished to join, not when he was so in the dark regarding her.

But if he started courting her? It was the perfect excuse.

If Tom Riddle had known in advance how much trouble came with courting Harriet Potter, he might have rethought that plan.

* * *

**Short but hey ho, there wasn't much more to add to this I'm afraid. **

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


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